Social Justice on Purpose
00:00:00.000 | In 2008, John Piper preached a sermon which was titled "Regeneration, Faith, Love"
00:00:11.860 | in that order.
00:00:13.320 | The sermon unpacks the reality of the new birth, the place of faith, and then the role
00:00:18.500 | of obedience in the life of faith.
00:00:21.200 | He eventually explains the aim and the purposes of our love for others, but he begins by talking
00:00:25.700 | about the regeneration that produces faith and the obedience to God's commandments.
00:00:31.140 | Here's what John Piper said in his 2008 sermon as he ties together regeneration, faith, and
00:00:37.220 | love.
00:00:38.220 | Here's what he said.
00:00:40.540 | The opposite of experiencing the commandments of God as burdensome is to experience them
00:00:46.580 | as your deepest longing, your deepest delight.
00:00:51.740 | And that's what the new birth does.
00:00:57.260 | We're working our way, remember last time, through three links in the chain of thought
00:01:01.560 | in verses 3 and 4?
00:01:02.940 | That was link number one, but this time, in this service, I want to push on this just
00:01:11.040 | a little farther and ask, "Which commandments?"
00:01:15.780 | What's he got in mind specifically?
00:01:18.300 | Anything?
00:01:19.620 | When he says, "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments and don't find them
00:01:26.620 | burdensome," which commandments?
00:01:29.400 | What specifically might be at the front of his mind that might help us get a handle on
00:01:35.180 | this?
00:01:36.180 | I don't think it's hard to answer that question if you just read the flow of the thoughts
00:01:41.820 | starting back in 420.
00:01:43.980 | That's just two verses prior to the chapter 5.
00:01:48.020 | Let's start at 420.
00:01:49.020 | 1 John 420 says, "If anyone says, 'I love God,'" I hope you say that, "and hates his
00:01:58.620 | brother, he's a liar.
00:02:02.140 | For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not
00:02:07.580 | seen.
00:02:08.580 | This is the commandment that we have from Him.
00:02:10.660 | Whoever loves God must love his brother."
00:02:12.700 | So we know what's on the front burner of this man's mind when he writes, "If you love God,
00:02:18.660 | you keep His commandments."
00:02:19.820 | It's the commandment to love each other.
00:02:22.540 | That's the main commandment.
00:02:23.540 | In fact, we're going to see before we're done, that's the summary of all the other commandments
00:02:27.980 | in this book and in the Bible.
00:02:31.180 | So when he says, "If you love God, you keep His commandments," he means first, if you
00:02:38.100 | love God, you love other people, especially believers.
00:02:43.340 | So now we have in the first link of the chain, not just a vague statement about loving God
00:02:50.880 | yields obedience.
00:02:52.840 | We have a statement much more precise, and this is what I wanted.
00:02:56.340 | We have a statement, "Loving God yields loving people."
00:03:01.780 | That's what we have in the first part of verse 3.
00:03:05.740 | He keeps on going.
00:03:07.660 | Verse 1, "Everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of Him."
00:03:15.380 | So you see the connection he's continuing?
00:03:18.260 | He's confirming that this is on his front burner.
00:03:23.980 | Verse 2, second half of the verse, "By this we know that we love the children of God when
00:03:31.040 | we love God and obey His commandments."
00:03:33.620 | Now that's odd.
00:03:35.260 | He switched it around on us.
00:03:36.980 | Kind of surprised me anyway.
00:03:39.620 | He's going along saying that loving God means loving people, and now he says, "By this we
00:03:44.820 | know that we love people."
00:03:46.060 | We love children of God, Christians, when we love God and obey His commandments.
00:03:52.020 | Why does he do that?
00:03:54.140 | Why does he say not just, "You know you're loving God when you love people," but he also
00:03:59.580 | says, "You know you're loving people when you love God."
00:04:01.820 | Seems like a circle.
00:04:02.820 | Where are we going to jump in?
00:04:03.820 | Here, I'll tell you why I think he did it.
00:04:07.300 | You decide.
00:04:08.380 | This is your Bible.
00:04:10.220 | I think John added verse 2 like that to guard us against sentimental reinterpretations of
00:04:20.540 | what love is.
00:04:23.460 | Nobody is going to say, "I don't think we should love other people."
00:04:28.540 | Nobody is going to say that.
00:04:30.780 | But they may mean something very sentimental by it.
00:04:35.660 | No grounding in reality.
00:04:38.340 | Not doing anybody any ultimate good.
00:04:40.460 | Just doing what they think love is.
00:04:43.220 | And John wants to guard against that.
00:04:46.020 | And so he says, "By this we know that we love the children of God."
00:04:52.220 | Not when we do any old thing we feel like toward them, but when we love God.
00:04:57.780 | You can't help anybody if you don't love God.
00:05:02.060 | Well, if you believe that.
00:05:04.140 | Well, of course you don't believe that.
00:05:07.540 | You can feed them if you don't love God.
00:05:10.960 | You can clothe them if you don't love God.
00:05:13.780 | You can give a roof over their heads if you don't love God.
00:05:17.480 | You can help them get assimilated as a refugee if you don't love God.
00:05:21.220 | Of course you can do good to people if you don't love God.
00:05:24.660 | You can just make them totally comfortable on their way to hell.
00:05:29.700 | God is not impressed with that kind of love.
00:05:33.380 | Just doing stuff for people, distracting them from their totally big need.
00:05:40.420 | Never angling all those food and clothing and shelter and help.
00:05:45.060 | That's them when they wake up to what they need.
00:05:48.820 | Not caring about that.
00:05:49.980 | Just doing what you think love is.
00:05:52.580 | This verse is in there to keep us from doing that,
00:05:56.980 | because one of the commands of God that validate whether you're loving people is,
00:06:02.780 | "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart."
00:06:05.820 | And if you're not helping people do that, you're not loving them.
00:06:09.660 | You can call it what you like, but biblically speaking, you're not loving them.
00:06:15.220 | If you're not using all the practical helps,
00:06:18.180 | which almost certainly should be done with a view to awakening their heart
00:06:24.820 | to see God as their treasure and their Savior, you're not loving them.
00:06:29.540 | That's such a key thing to keep in mind is we seek to be kind and to love our neighbors.
00:06:34.500 | We don't love simply because we have a design on their lives,
00:06:38.100 | but we do serve in love toward an ultimate end in mind,
00:06:41.340 | and it's healthy to be convicted about that end.
00:06:43.820 | The clip was taken from a sermon John Piper preached on March 2nd, 2008,
00:06:48.380 | titled "Regeneration, Faith, Love," in that order.
00:06:52.500 | This clip was sent in by Christopher Burdine in Oklahoma City.
00:06:56.020 | Christopher, thank you for this clip.
00:06:57.580 | So many of you are sending us some great clips from the Piper Sermon Archive,
00:07:01.940 | and I appreciate that.
00:07:02.940 | Please keep them coming.
00:07:04.500 | Email us the sermon name and a timestamp of when and where the clip appears in the message.
00:07:09.500 | Go to our online home and send us an email from DesiringGod.org/AskPastorJohn.
00:07:16.620 | Well Pastor John returns tomorrow to address an unmarried couple who has committed sexual sin,
00:07:23.220 | and they're asking, "What should we do now?"
00:07:26.100 | I'm your host Tony Reinke.
00:07:27.100 | I'll see you then.
00:07:27.940 | [ Silence ]
00:07:33.940 | [BLANK_AUDIO]